Israel Innovation 2.0

In celebration of Ada Lovelace, the first female programmer, today is Ada Lovelace Day. To honor her contributions in science and technology and inspire others to follow her path, thousands of bloggers, including myself, have pledged to blog about specific women in science and technology or about women in science and technology in general on this day to help raise the profile of women in technology.

For this, I have decided to provide the biographies of six of the many women who are shaping Israel’s technology industry who I think are amazing. Please note that these women are far from the only ones who have contributed and/or are contributing in Israel and that there are many others just as inspiring:

Orna Berry: Orna Berry has been an active member of and contributor to Israel’s science and technology industries for three decades and has significantly helped shape Israel’s venture capital and industry landscapes. After playing the role of entrepreneur by co-founding ORNET Data Communication Technologies Ltd. in 1993 and then successfully selling it to Siemens AG in 1995, Berry joined Gemini Israel Funds as a Partner in 2000, where she has helped startups, such as Prime Sense and Aladdin Knowledge Systems Ltd., get off the ground and establish themselves.

In addition to working with companies individually as a venture capitalist, Berry has represented and still represents the Israeli venture capital community as Chairperson of the Israel Venture Association (IVA). She has also helped form government policy that positively impacted industrial research and development when she was Chief Scientist and Director of the Industrial R&D Administration of the Ministry of Industry and Trade of the Government of Israel from 1997 to 2000.

Bina Rezinovsky: Rezinovsky has been in the news the past week for resigning from Cisco Israel. According to Ha’aretz, during Rezinovsky’s tenure “Cisco Israel grew at a 20% annual rate and made a number of Israeli acquisitions. The local branch finished 2007 with $500 million in revenues and won most of the large communications equipment tenders in the country. Rezinovsky won Cisco Europe’s management prize in 2006.” 

Ruth Alon: After working in various positions at Memorex and Unisys in the U.S., Alon founded and then headed the Internet service provider (ISP), Netvision in 1994. It has since become the largest ISP in Israel. Alon currently serves on the Advisory Board of Landmark Ventures and the Board of Directors of the “Technion – Israel Institute of Technology” and the Technion’s Executive & Academic Development Committees.

Miriam Schwab: Though probably best known for helping to popularize the content management system (CMS), WordPress in Israel and being an expert on blogging, Miriam Schwab is one of the most inspiring women on Israel’s technology scene right now for several other reasons as well.

Aside from founding and heading the successful marketing company, Illuminea, playing an important part in promoting Israel abroad and helping non-profits in Jerusalem understand social media to better thrive, Schwab is also the founder of the website BizzyWomen.com.

Founded in the summer of 2008, Bizzy Women is meant to be a one-stop site for busy women with the most useful information on topics in finance, entrepreneurship and parenting among others (disclosure: I have contributed articles to the site before).

Orli Yakuel: Orli Yakuel is a leading voice on Web 2.0 applications in Israel and abroad. She is the co-founder of Go2Web20.net, a directory of Web 2.0 applications, and editor of the Go2web20 blog, her personal blog about Web 2.0 technology.

Shari Arison: Best known for inheriting the fortune her father left from founding Carnival Cruises Lines, Shari Arison has been an active philanthropist over the years and has, most recently, taken a specific interest in clean technology and water conservation solutions. In 2006, Arison founded Miya, a company with the mission to reduce water loss and better manage urban water systems. To date, Arison has invested $100 million in Miya and impressively recruited water technology maven, Booky Oren to head the operation. The company was launched publicly in late 2008.

What woman in Israel’s tech scene do you admire? Whether someone on this list or not, share it in the comments below!

During the week of March 15, 2009, Google fully integrated adCore into Froogle offering a more complete SEO and shopper technology package. Information security companies, Imperva and Trusteer were busy rolling out new features and collaborating on a new anti-malware tool, respectively. Meanwhile, David Pogue of the New York Times wrote about Shai Agassi’s electric car vision and scientists announced the creation of a new device that enables plants to send text alerts to the mobile deviice of farmers notifying them when they need water and thus preventing excess watering. For these stories and much more, check out this week’s 14 Israel-related headlines below. 

Cleantech

1. The Orange Tree is Texting — Again

2. Electric Cars for All! (No, Really This Time)

Investments and Economy

3. Russians in Israel to talk nanotech

4. Commex Tech Raises $3.5 Million

5. Israeli business delegation visits Vietnam

6. Israel’s technology entrepreneurs switch from growth to survival

Information Technology

7. NDS at CCBN 2009: Delivering the Best Security and Enabling New Entertainment Revenues for Chinese Pay-TV Operator

8. Froogle Submission Is Now Available Within adCore

9. Apache Corporation Selects Aternity for End User Experience Management

10. Imperva upgrades database activity analysis too

11. DNSstuff Partners With Trusteer On Malware-Prevention Tool

Miscellaneous

12. Cisco Israel head resigns

13. Japanese Sea Coral Can Change Sex In Order to Survive Global Warming

14. Omek Interactive to launch 3-D camera for gesture-controlled games

Jeff Neal at Optionetics.com posted yesterday that information security solutions provider, Check Point Software Technologies is continuing to experience growth, including in the United States and Europe, despite the economic downturn.

According to Neal,  

“Check Point has solid fundamentals with great return on equity and a healthy cash flow. The latest earnings showed total revenues at $217.6 million, compared to $206.7 million in the fourth quarter of 2007. Net income was $86.5 million compared to $87.9 million in the fourth quarter of 2007. The company also indicated that their share repurchase program bought approximately 3.4 million shares at a total cost of $66.7 million and that they continued to experience good performance from all geographies, including the United States and Europe.”

While other companies, such as SAP Israel and Amdocs have been announcing layoffs, even back in October, Check Point was confident about its sales growth. At the time, which was after Check Point reported third-quarter results that beat estimates, Gil Shwed, the CEO, explained that security was still a sector that companies were investing in,

“We see projects being cancelled but we also see projects being initiated. Clients are buying. It’s not that the world has stopped but they are cutting costs.”

For the most part, Shwed seems to be right. Earlier this week, the UK edition of SC Magazine posted on its website, the SC Top 30: Information security overview 2009. According to the overview, which is based on an interview with Eric Domage, manager, western European security research and consulting at IDC, 

“The European security market will see growth – but at a reduced rate – and activity will not start to pick up until well into 2010.”

It goes on to mention that security software is in decline and most growth is in managed security services providers (MSSPs), which more comapnies are shifting to. Though, according to Domage, activity isn’t expected to really pick up until after 2010,

“the pressures on both customers and suppliers are likely to intensify during 2009 and on into 2010. Security chiefs are going to have to look hard at cost control and justify their spending requirements.” 

Meeting these requirements, Check Point Endpoint Security protects PCs and eliminates the need to deploy and manage multiple agents, reducing total cost of ownership and appealing to security officers. Check Point’s Endpoint Security provides end-to-end security solutions, from a firewall to anticirus protections to program control and full disk encryption. 

Check Point isn’t the only Israeli security company offering cost-saving solutions that is experiencing growth during the economic downturn, Imperva, an application data security company, had a breakout year in 2008.

VShield Software Corp. announced today that it has begun talks to buy an Israel based B2B software company that develops software packages for the travel industry, including hotel chains and several International airlines.

According to Andrea Zecevic, Chief Product Officer,

“The Israeli company will operate independently as a wholly owned subsidiary in addition to our existing Trust Vault platform. They have some great technology that can serve as a platform for future growth.” 

One Israeli company that can fit the description is Formula Travel Solutions, Ltd (FTS). FTS provides advanced software solutions for the travel industry and its products include TOPAX Management, TOPAX platform, AMSYS 2000 and the TOPAX B2B site. According to the Israeli R&D database Matimop, 

“The TOPAX platform includes the entire commercial, operational, and administrative aspects of Tour Operator activities, providing the necessary planning, costing, pricing, inventory, allotment, document printing, accounting and reporting. It includes hotel and flight reservations, packages, tours, transfers, car rental, and more.”

While it is possible that FTS is the mystery company that VShield is after, it is unlikely. FTS is an established company that has been around since 1982. It also has a parent company,  Formula Vision Technologies Ltd. that would makes a sale more complicated.

Last week the Internet was abuzz with Microsoft’s intentions to buy Israeli motion and depth sensor company, 3DV Systems. Microsoft’s offer of $35 million is below the $38.6 million invested in the company and seems to come out of desperation on the part of Kleiner Perkins. If the deal goes through, Microsoft will integrate the technology into its Xbox gaming system, making the need for any type of controller unnecessary and posing the biggest threat to Nintendo Wii yet. 

A little over a year ago in January 2008, 3DV stole the spotlight at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas with its new release at the time, the ZCam. The camera, which detects motion and depth, was on display for conference attendees to try out and drew a lot of good feedback. After reading about 3DV’s performance and its competitor, another Israeli company, Prime Sense’s presence at CES 2008, I predicted in a post about them that they could take gaming to the next level, including one of them becoming the next big gaming console.

Though that certainly doesn’t look like it will be the case for 3DV as an independent entity, should the deal go through with Microsoft and it is succesfully integrated into the Xbox, it looks like it will take gaming to the next level.  This story will be interesting to watch as it develops and long after.

Disclosure: The following is partially a recap of Twestival Jerusalem ’09, an event that I helped organize.

In a recent post about Green Any Site, I mentioned that Jerusalem took part in a worldwide effort to raise money for Charity: Water in Africa. The event, a Twestival (short for Twitter festival), raised over NIS 2000 in Jerusalem for Charity: Water, which will use this money and the money raised from the over 200 other Twestivals around the world (over $250,000 USD) to build wells that will provide clean water to villages in Africa and India.

As Israel is a leader in water technology and several of the co-organizers’ organizations, including Jewish Climate Initiative, Green Any Site, PresenTense and GreenProphet are connected to cleantech in some way, Twestival Jerusalem took on an additional component of educating attendees on clean technology and water technology from Israel.

Some Israeli water technology companies that stand out when addressing water needs, in Africa and elsewhere, include Desalitech, AqWise and Netafim. Here is what each company is doing:

Desalitech:  Desalitech has created a reverse osmosis water treatment technology that can lower desalinated water prices to a level that will make water affordable to developed and developing areas. It’s desalination technology offers reductions of up to 50% in the installation costs of desalination plants and in desalination energy consumption as well as a reduction in maintanence and operating expenses. It’s surface and ground water reclamation technology is currently bringing clean water to villages in Africa and abroad.

AqWise: Aqwise is an innovator in developing and implementing wastewater treatment technologies that can be used in municipal, agricultural and industrial wastewater treatement plants. Its AGAR^® Process can be used for both organic carbon and nutrient removal. At the heart of the process are little plastic biomass carriers that filter and treat the water in a similar manner to the way rocks filter water.

Netafim: Netafim has been around since 1965 and is one of Israel’s first innovators in the agriculture sector. Aside from greenhouse and bio-energy solutions, it provides irrigation solutions and products that enable customers to get the most from their crops (both in quality and yields) while using as minimal an amount as possible of valuable resources, such as water.

I recently helped co-organize Jerusalem Twestival ’09 which raised money for Charity: Water, an organization that provides villages in Africa with clean water. The Jerusalem event was one of over 180 “twestivals” on the same day worldwide and featured booths with different clean technology and water technology companies and organizations along with musical performances.

One of the organizations at the festival was Green Any Site (GAS). Green Any Site takes advantage of affiliate sales programs, such as the one offered by Amazon.com, by offering a “Green This” bookmarklet that people can add to their browser and click on before adding an item to their shopping cart. After following the directions they can then continue to go about the regular purchasing process. At the end of the month Amazon.com and/or other similar sites send a percentage of each sale made to Green Any Site which then donates all of the proceeds to a charity or charities decided upon by bookmarklet users.

During the festival, Tal Ater, the founder and creator of GAS, showed me how it works. Here is the video:

During the week of February 15, 2009, Greylock Israel was revealed to be the most active Israeli venture capital fund in 2008. The Internet was abuzz with both Hulu’s plan to discontinue distributing its content via Boxee and Microsoft’s intention to further its Xbox technology by buying 3DV, a motion and depth sensor company that has technology that can turn a 2D gaming experience into a more interactive 3D one without having to use a controller. In the cleantech sector, news broke that Arison Holdings Ltd. subsidiary Housing and Construction Holding Co. Ltd. plans to build the largest private solar thermal power plant in the Negev. For these stories and more, check below for the 13 Israel-related headlines from the week of February 15, 2009. 

Cleantech
1. Lab-on-a-Chip the Latest Weapon Against Pollution

2. Arison plans private solar thermal power plant in Negev

Investments and M&A
3. 3DV buy could give Xbox a stronger punch

4. Greylock Israel the most active Israeli venture capital fund of 2008

Information Technology
5. LG Electronics Selects Intrinsyc to Provide Software for Navigation and Location-Based Services 

6. NSC Announces Multimedia Search Server for Enterprise Applications

7. Mellanox Builds Bridges for Data Center Connectivity

Telecom/Mobile
8. iSkoot Kalaida(TM) Platform Brings New Capability to Consumer Handsets

9. WeFi Joins Forces With free-hotspot.com To Expand Global Wi-Fi Network

Miscellaneous
10. Inshore in Nazareth 

11. Hulu Withdraws its Content from TV.com, Boxee

12. C-nario, TruMedia integrate audience measurement with digital signage software

13. Rapid Manufacturing Goes Hollywood

Since I attended TechAviv two weeks ago, in which nearly half the startups there were early stage and pre-seed, I have been thinking a lot about the discussions on getting funded that took place there and earlier that day at Eze Vidra’s VC Cafe breakfast and in general.

It has been clear for several months now that VCs are being more conservative in choosing companies to fund and that those that do get funding, are generally receiving less than they would have in good times. Additionally, somewhere along the way in the past few years, VCs have become more concerned with the capital aspect of what they do which has led them to invest in fewer “ventures.” They are taking less risks, such as by not investing in ideas, and are looking more for “ventures” that have already proven themselves a little – in many cases, by already becoming profitable or developing the technology. Whether this is good or bad, it’s just the way it is.

Since an angel investor panel, which included Yossi Vardi, at TechCrunch50 in September 2008 discussed what the decrease in VC funding would mean for them, I have constantly heralded angel investments as an alternative to VC funding and one that would still thrive… then the stock market and economy crashed. While that was already a few months ago, The New York Times had an article earlier this month titled, Angels Flee From Tech Start-Ups, about how bad it has really been and is for them. 

So, hypothetically removing VCs and Angels from the startup funding equation, what other sources of funding are there in Israel? For more established startups, close to nothing. 

For small startups and individuals though, here is a list of nine alternative funding programs:

1. Israel Internet Society Research Grants
2. US-Israel Binational Industrial R&D Foundation (BIRD)
3. US-Israel Binational Science Foundation (BSF)
4. Intel-Annual Research Grants Program
5. Technion Research and Development Foundation
6. Israel Science Foundation
7. Incubators (Ministry of Industry, Trade and Labor Office of the Chief Scientist)
8. Call for proposals (Israel Ministry of Science, Culture and Sport)
9. Yozma Group

Tomorrow kicks off the first of the three-day Eilat International Renewable Energy Conference and Exhibition that takes place in the the resort town of Eilat, in Israel’s southern tip.

Two companies that I’ll be paying close attention to during the conference are the solar energy companies, BrightSource Energy and Aora. Brightsource recently inked the largest solar energy deal ever that will help provide Southern California with more energy, while Aora just raised $5 million in funding.

Here is a little more about each company according to their websites.

BrightSource: BrightSource Energy, Inc., based in Oakland, California and Jerusalem, Israel, designs and builds large scale solar plants that deliver low-cost solar energy in the form of steam and/or electricity, at prices competitive with fossil fuels, to industrial and utility customers worldwide. Its Jerusalem subsidary, Luz II, Ltd., provides product development and engineering, project engineering and management, and solar field manufacturing and supply services.

AORA: Formerly known as EDIG Solar, AORA is an Israeli solar thermal company that is based on research and development by Prof. Jacob Karni of the Weizmann Institute in Rehovot, Israel. The company’s technology offers solutions for providing smaller quantities of solar thermal that are closer to residential communities.